Trade and Sustainable Development: The Nigeria-China Experience
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Date
2024-04-18
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Abstract
The significance of Nigeria-China bilateral trade relations has evolved over the years in
nature, scope, and impact, making it imperative for mainstream research to analyze its
potential implications for sustainable development. This paper assessed the impact of
Nigeria-China bilateral relations on sustainable development for both countries from
1980-2020. The Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) model was used to evaluate how
bilateral trade intensities influence sustainable development. Findings show that Nigeria’s
export to China wields a positive and significant impact on Nigeria’s sustainable
development while China’s export to Nigeria has a negative and significant impact on
Nigeria’s sustainable development. Further findings reveal that Nigeria’s export to China
does not have any significant impact on China’s sustainable development, while China’s
export to Nigeria produced a positive and significant impact on China’s sustainable
development. The paper concludes that while trade propels sustainable development, it
can also be detrimental through over-reliance on imports and the employment of
unsustainable trade practices. In terms of policy import, Nigeria needs to improve its value
addition, product innovation, and production processes to improve product standards and
international competitiveness. Furthermore, the Nigerian and Chinese governments
should invest substantially in research and development of green transport modes for
importation activities and ensure their commitment to the Voluntary Sustainability
Standards (VSS) to make the Nigeria-China trade relations holistically sustainable.